Wireless networks continue to evolve as new communication technologies develop and standardize. Current wireless network deployments include many variations in architecture, including support for different wireless communication technologies offered by one or more wireless network service providers. A representative wireless network for a wireless network service provider can include support for one or more releases of wireless communication protocols specified by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) communication standards organizations. The 3GPP develops mobile communication standards that include releases for Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE Advanced standards. The 3GPP2 develops mobile communication standards that include CDMA2000 1xRTT and 1xEV-DO standards. Each of the standards listed include an idle state, in which a mobile wireless device can be associated with but not connected to a wireless network, and a connected state, in which the mobile wireless device can be connected to and actively transmitting and receiving data with the wireless network. In order to transition from the idle state to the connected state, a connection establishment routine can be executed by the mobile wireless device through which a radio frequency channel having appropriate characteristics for communication with an access portion of the wireless network can be selected. The mobile wireless device can select the radio frequency channel from a set of radio frequency channels broadcast by the wireless network.
Just as wireless networks can support several versions of a communication protocol and/or different wireless communication protocols, mobile wireless devices can include support for connecting to one or more wireless networks that use one or more different wireless communication protocols. Each wireless communication protocol can provide a different set of capabilities, such as features, data rates, power requirements and service coverage area. The mobile wireless device can be configured to select among the different wireless communication protocols when associating with and connecting to a wireless network. When a connection cannot be established with the wireless network using a selected radio frequency channel that supports a particular wireless communication protocol, the mobile wireless device can switch to attempting a connection on a different radio frequency channel using a different wireless communication protocol. The latter wireless communication protocol, however, can provide a different and more limited set of capabilities than the first attempted wireless communication protocol, which can affect data throughput, power consumption or other key factors that affect a user experience. Thus, there exists a need to select radio frequency channels adaptively when establishing connections to a wireless network from among one or more wireless communication protocols and to balance a set of features realized by the resulting established connection compared with a time required to establish the connection between the mobile wireless device and the wireless network.